Hong Kong horse racing superstar Vincent Ho’s fightback from brain bleed, world-class quest

Explaining his aversion to socialising, Vincent Ho Chak-yiu was suitably succinct. “When I have to talk, it’s a lot of effort,” he told the South China Morning Post. “Harder than riding a horse, for sure.”

It is logical that one of Hong Kong’s greatest jockeys feels most contented on horseback. When Ho begins speaking, though, the personal takes and tales roll off his tongue.

He relives the day in New Zealand that he “felt completely dead” after riding 39 horses, explains how he bounced back last year from the traumatic brain injury that knocked him out for four days, issues a rebuke to the anonymous critics who “can’t even sit on a horse” and relates how hugging trees helps him manage a life of incessant scrutiny and judgment.

On the sacrifice and temperance that are built into his every day, Ho said: “I don’t like to go partying, because it’s noisy. I’m sensitive to alcohol, and I don’t like to drink.